have 

 and t 

 stalk 



delicate ferns. With broad palm you clutch him and all the neighbor- 

 ing herbage too. Stealthily opening your little finger, you see his 

 leg; the next finger reveals more of him; and opening the next you 

 are just be^i^rmng to take him out w^ith the other hand, when out he 

 bounds and/ufivves you to renew your entomological pursuits. Twice you 

 snatch hjvOwiulls of grass, and cautiously open your palm to find that you 



ass. It is quite vexatious. There are thousands of them here 



climbing and wriggling on that blade, leaping off from that 



ting and kicking on that vertical spider's web, jumping and 



about under your very nose, hitting you in your face, creeping 



shoes, and yet not one do you get. If any tender-hearted person 



ndered how a humane man could bring himself to such cruelty as 



le an insect, let him hunt for a grasshojjper in a hot day among 



ass, and when at length he secures one, the affixing him upon the 



hook will be done without a single scruple, and as a mere 



matter of penal justice, and with judicial solemnity. 



Now then the trout are yonder. We swing our line to 



the air, and give it a gentle cast toward the desired spot, 



and a puff of south wind dexterously lodges it in the branch 



of a tree. You plainly see it strike, and whirl over and over, 



so that no gentle pull loosens it ; you draw it north and 



south, east and west ; you give it a jerk up and a pull 



down; you give it a series of nimble twitches; you coax it 



in this way, and solicit it in that way, in vain. Then you 



stop and look a moment, first at the trout, and then at your 



line. Was there anything ever so vexatious.^ Would it be 



wrong to get angry? In fact you feel very much like it. 



The very things you wanted to catch, the grasshopper and 



the trout, you could not ; but a tree, that you did not want, 



you have caught fast at the first throw. You fear that the 



trout will be scared. You cautiously draw nigh and peep 



Yes, there they are looking at you, and laughing as sure as 



ever trout laughed. They iniderstand the whole thing. With a 



very decisive jerk you snap your line, regain the remnant of it, and 



sit down to repair it, to put on another hook, catch another grass- 



opper, and move on down stream to catch a trout. 



But let us begin. Standing in the middle of the stream, your 

 short rod in hand, let out twelve to twenty feet of line, varying its length 

 according to the nature of the stream, and, as far as it can be done, keep- 

 ing its position and general conduct under anxious scrutiny. Just here 

 the water is mid -leg deep. Experimenting at each forward reach for 



